NOVEL NEXT Chapter 625
The body double at the side of the hall dies, and the shock from my attack makes the white threads and divine energy streaming out from the dragon and clones go wild.
The screams from within the dome make the mansion itself shake and rattle.
My purple barrier transmits all of the offputting emotions and thoughts rippling through the man being burned alive directly into my mind. There is an intense underlying emotion of bliss and genuine pleasure coming from the dying man inside the orb being heated up to temperatures nearing the surface of the sun...
It's as if his greatest artistic fantasy is playing out as I burn him to ash.
First he wants more than anything to turn me to stone, and now he enjoys his own death as I'm certain to take the victory.
I can't quite wrap my mind around his twisted view of reality, but don't let the madman's actions deter my attack and continue to put my all into it.
With a yell from me as I completely drain my soul energy stores, matching the height of the man's screams, I hear and see notifications roll into my mind's eye. Then, feel the extremely pure divine energy being pulled out of this man's true core and flowing directly into mine.
[Level Up] x328
[Use Absorption]
Skill: Mana Manipulation
Upgrade: Superior
[YES][NO]
[Use Absorption]
MCP: 191,874,234,929,550
[YES][NO]
I instantly press yes on both options, reaching level 7340, but am quite surprised at what I see...
For small instances as I torched the inside of the marble orb, I could see his status, and his level is far lower than the strength output I felt while facing him suggests.
Even from the Director of the Apex Region, at just over level 9000, he granted me 10 trillion MCP, and the bronze dragon at a similar level gave me 50 trillion. The man that ran this mansion's level clocked in at 9620, yet the variance of mana control is so great it feels like he was even stronger than Raven, who is a much higher level.
There is a pattern here that isn't quite adding up. It feels like there is someone or something limiting people from surpassing this level 10,000 threshold. It isn't just pure power, or else Raven wouldn't have made it passed.
Many questions continue to race through my mind as every drop of power. The pure silky compressed divine energy, and the instinctual power to activate a new True Core ability, is completely absorbed.
The glowing yellow dragon and the lively clones are all drained of their bright True Core's light.
Loud roars that once shook the mansion cease, and the set of claws coming my way slowly stop and completely solidify into pure white marble before they can reach me.
The dragon falls back into a lifeless statue, striking a far different pose, but it looks exactly like the image of the pure white dragon I saw in the lobby of the Apex headquarters when I first walked in.
The floating thread puppets all fall to the ground and unravel, fracturing into tiny pieces of nothing but stone.
As I fully pull my blade from the small pierced hole in the orb and put it away into my item storage, the mansion falls dark and silent.
The only light that remains other than mine is the pulsing and flickering dying remainder of Raven's core on the far side of the mansion.
I turn around and jump forward, lunging off the balcony down toward her while considering activating many abilities, but with the signal of her lifeforce growing weaker and weaker, there's only one option I'm positive will work.
I activate my plunderer skill and allow a dark red aura to permeate from my body while pushing a wave of telepathy into the woman's mind.
As I touch down on the bottom floor and make my way over, the full sight of her bloodstained figure becomes clear, and I press both my palms against the only remaining exposed portions of her body left. One hand is placed on her forehead above her closed eyes, and the other on her chest where her core violently spins.
There's no response at all to my telepathy, but at this close proximity, I can hear the extreme ringing in her mind.
My plunderer's aura expands, filling the entire white mansion, and begins to seep out from the small cracks in the floor.
Simultaneously, I let my mind and voice seep into hers and repeat the same words: that the only way she's going to survive right now is if she trusts the voice that is trying to reach her and swear her loyalty to the Flame Emperor.
Even with my extreme rise in power in the last few seconds, the extreme ringing and painful emotions that seep out from Raven's mind as I try to push a message in take all of my concentration.
The walls and ceiling of the mansion quiver and creak, as it's drained of all residual mana left behind.
Outside the mansion, a red fog creeps out to disperse through the forest, greedily draining all of the mana from the land just as I did before to the Vice Region.
With the experience under my belt from before, absorbing mana from the atmosphere outside isn't hard. The real puzzle I'm trying to solve is the one inside Raven's mind.
It's like an endless maze of walls and barriers, doing everything in its power to push out any external noise, a natural defense from the blaring ringing of divine energy poisoning. My own brain begins to burn as I try to force my way through her mental walls and overpower the ringing.
It is an impressive design. Every fraction of a second that passes, the deeper I plunge into this intricate defense, and it astonishes me further. I have to use the entirety of my mental strength, buffs on full blast, with my greater form activated before I see a single pathway in.
A wave of satisfaction washes over me as I feel my message break through to the small amount of consciousness locked away, and the moment my message makes it through, the blood-stained hazel eyes of the warrior flutter open once to look at me, and a pulse of perception follows to verify exactly what's happened inside the mansion while she was out.
In the next moment, her eyes close, and I lose the connection to her conscious mind, but a link of loyalty is formed, and her status is added to my rising Emperor's domain interface.
My attention shifts to sharing my mythic-grade hibernation skill with her and forcing it to activate through my control panel as her mind is on autopilot.
Through my palms, millions of MP are drained from the outside world and siphoned into the activation of this skill.
However, millions are far from enough.
The necessary amount to cure all of her ailments is over double what mine cost.
[Use Hibernation] [Mythic Grade]
Cure: Mana Fatigue [Raven Blackwell], Soul Energy Fatigue [Raven Blackwell], Divine Energy Fatigue [Raven Blackwell], Divine Energy Poisoning [Raven Blackwell], Divine Energy Internal Combat Injuries [Raven Blackwell], Petrification [Raven Blackwell]
[Slow Mode]
Cost: 1.26 Billion MP
Time: 549.9 Days [YES][NO]
[Basic Mode]
Cost: 209.33 Billion MP
Time: 156.1 Days [YES][NO]
[Express Mode]
Cost: 400.05 Trillion MP
Time: 7.0 Days [YES][NO]
[Emergency Mode]
Cost: 556.04 Quadrillion MP
Time: <0.1 Days [YES][NO]
As more and more mana is channeled into the skill, Raven's lifeforce gets weaker and weaker, and I'm more certain that instantly healing her isn't an option.
I myself have used hibernation two times in the past. Each time, once the skill is activated, the user is placed into a state of suspended animation, where no harm can be done. Even if I press the lowest option, she'll be safe.
However, the questions I have need to be answered a lot faster than 550 days from now...
I grit my teeth and do some quick calculations in my head about how long it will take to absorb enough mana from the atmosphere out here, and the only possible option I can choose is [Slow Mode].
As the seconds tick away, it's clear this is the only option. I reluctantly choose it, and a flash of white light fills the mansion as hibernation is activated. Through the mind link I share with her, the ringing instantly stops.
Her brain and body function do too.
The pulsing and flickering core in her chest calms down to a steady low burn.
All of the mana I siphoned into her circulates through her body as the skill slowly gets to work.
It's quite interesting to see the skill at work from the outside. It now makes far more sense why I lost my full cognitive ability while I was healing.
A new textbox shows up in my interface.
[Use Hibernation] [Mythic Grade]
[Slow Mode]
[Time Remaining] 549.9 Days
[Add Mana To Accelerate]
Bright white light freezes Raven in time as she slowly begins to heal, and simultaneously, my red aura that plunders the abandoned forest outside grows in size upward and outward, sucking away the mana from everything in sight.
The immense pressure and intensity of this whole situation is finally lifted as I choose the option to accelerate, and the mana from outside slowly speeds up the process.
Raven is safe, and I've won the battle.
The lack of mana in the marble palace we stand in weakens its structure, and the high-powered waves of divine energy from before make the cracks in the mansion slowly grow larger.
The ceiling crumbles and collapses, creating small holes, allowing the light of day to stream in from the sun above.